South Asia, comprised of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, is home to about 1.8 billion people -- nearly 25% of the world’s population. But with an area of 5.2 million square kilometers, or some 1% of the world’s area, South Asia is the most densely...

This is the second annual report developed collaboratively by United Nations agencies on progress in Asia and the Pacific towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Its findings are a cause for concern. The SDG hunger deadline is just over a decade away, and...

A rapid increase in aquaculture production in Bangladesh has lowered fish prices, increased protein consumption, and reduced poverty. The Making of a Blue Revolution in Bangladesh offers a valuable case study of how this transformation in the fish value chain has occurred and how it has improved the lives of...

The ACIAR project ‘Strategies Using Floriculture to Improve Livelihoods in Indigenous Australian and Pacific Island Communities’ utilised value chain analyses as a unifying framework in and across participating countries. The overall aim of this multifaceted project was to identify constraints and opportunities for indigenous enterprise development through floriculture. The potentially...

Ahead of Indigenous Terra Madre Asia and Pan-Pacific, running from October 11-14th 2019 in Hokkaido, Japan, we spoke to indigenous delegate Imanul Huda, member of the Kapuas Hulu Slow Food Community in Indonesia. In our interview, Imanul discusses his involvement with Slow Food and his work to protect natural resources and sustainable food sources...

With increasing concerns on the sustainability of agricultural systems, many tools have been developed to assess farm sustainability. The main objective of this study was to assess and compare the sustainability of different forms of family farm organization. A second objective was to test the relevance of the IDEA method...

The Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) today approved an FAO project designed to transform Pakistan’s Indus River Basin by improving agriculture and water management to make this vital food-producing region more resilient to climate change. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has provided FAO with a grant of nearly $35...

Cocoa is a key crop for many Indonesian smallholder farmers, who own over 90 percent of the country’s cocoa production land. However, cocoa bean yields have fallen from around 750 kg/ha in the 1980s to below 400 kg/ha over the last two decades, with ageing trees, pests, diseases, poor soil...

There are hints of ecological farming everywhere you look on Jit Bahadur Singar’s farm. Plastic bottles holding a few drops of imitation pheromones hang among bitter gourd plants to attract pests. A home brew of animal urine, leaves, and remnants of garlic, hot pepper and tobacco – a bio-pesticide –...

ice is Indonesia’s main food, and it is important to consider the role of small scale farmers and women in the production of rice and other food. Small farmers and women have contributed immensely to meet the nutritional needs of the Indonesian population. According to national statistics, 73 millions tonnes...

July 2018 witnessed the release of the flagship report of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) 2018. A trove of information that, in the months to come, will be unpacked and discussed by activists and researchers in the fishery and aquaculture sectors,...

This project is currently being implemented in the North of India since 2018 and focuses mainly on female smallholder farmers. The scope is to strengthen resilience through biodiverse cropping and seed system and broaden the type of crop produced in this region. The project is particularly in line with the...

Millions of small-scale farmers and foresters will be able to better protect their lands from the impacts of climate change, and improve their livelihoods thanks to renewed global efforts announced today on the side-lines of World Forest Week (COFO24). The Forest and Farm Facility initiative - a partnership among FAO, IIED,...

Governments and other stakeholders must place sustainable and productive agriculture front and centre in their attempts to reduce the impact of disasters and climate-related shocks in the world’s most disaster-prone region.

This is the story of Ms Bouchan Huengvilay, a PGS-organic farmer in Lao PDR. She is part of one of the PGS groups formed and supported under the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) on "Small-scale Farmer Inclusion in Organic Agriculture Development through Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS)".

SEWA, AFA member and MTCP2 national implementing agency in India, conducted SRI training for women farmers in Uttar Pradesh, India. Two of the participants applied what they learned from the training despite the risks, and their efforts paid off when the yield of their paddy fields increased from their usual...

The Climate Smart Farmers Field School (CFS) enhanced the capacities of 629 farmers in Climate Change adaptation skills in rice production in 14 farming barangays in 3 municipalities in BICOL Philippines by increasing their knowledge and skills on climate change adaptation strategies, demonstrating hands-on climate risk resilient agricultural technologies and setting up of small...

This is the story of Mr Nov Keo, a PGS-organic farmer in Cambodia. He is part of one of the PGS groups formed and supported under the FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) on "Small-Scale Farmer Inclusion in Organic Agriculture Development through Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS)".

Millions of small-scale farmers and foresters will be able to better protect their lands from the impacts of climate change, and improve their livelihoods thanks to renewed global efforts announced last two weeks ago on the side-lines of World Forest Week (COFO24). The Forest and Farm Facility initiative - a partnership...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has opened a three-day emergency meeting to examine the most recent developments in China following the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the country, and propose a regional response to the threat that ASF could spread to other countries...